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July 2007

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — "

The National Council on the Humanities will meet July 26-27 and will review the We the People applications submitted in May. The members of the National Council are >>>

We suggest that you stay in touch with the Council members from your state or jurisdiction.

Program Officers' meeting, Oklahoma City, June 21-23

The 2007 Program Officers' meeting, hosted by the Oklahoma Humanities Council, took full advantage of Oklahoma's centennial celebrations this year and of the cultural and historical resources of Oklahoma City. Twenty-two councils were represented as well as NEH, the Federation of State Humanities Councils, Museum on Main Street, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Sessions included opportunities for seasoned program officers and new program officers to discuss their experiences of council work, the use of film in the humanities, and bridging the gap between public humanities and the Academy.

The image above includes scenes from the meeting: background, the Survivor Oak at the Oklahoma City National Memorial; clockwise from top, the Oklahoma City National Memorial; program officers in session; David Pettyjohn of the Oklahoma Humanities Council hands off the traditional program officers lobster, mascot of the program officers' meeting, to Kim Anderson of Humanities Montana, host of the 2008 program officers' meeting; and the tower by glass artist Dale Chihuly at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

VFH notes that, "Many of the performers who will appear in the Smithsonian Festival have come to statewide and even national attention through the VFP Apprenticeship program. In Good Keeping, a book of photographs and reflections on the first five years of the apprenticeship program, will be published by University of Virginia Press in October of this year."

In addition, VFH's new Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, a guidebook to Virginia Indian sites, was recently featured in the Washington Post for its inclusion of two sites in northern Virginia. The guidebook was developed by VFH in cooperation with the Virginia Council on Indians with support from Jamestown 2007, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia General Assembly.

Illinois Humanities Council releases "Folksongs of Illinois"

The Illinois Humanities Council has just released its three-CD set of "Folksongs of Illinois." This series is "part of the larger Illinois Music Heritage Project undertaken by the Illinois Humanities Council." With this project, the IHC will create educational curriculum to be used with the CD series. In addition, the IHC will conduct a survey of archival holdings related to folk music in Illinois.

See the Montana Festival of the Book before you die!

This year's book festival will take place in Missoula September 13-15. It will feature some of the most important voices of the West, including award-winning authors Ivan Doig, William Kittredge, Mary Clearman Blew, Barry Lopez, James Lee Burke, Annick Smith, David James Duncan, David Quammen, Sharman Apt Russell, Charles D’Ambrosio, David Long, Gary Ferguson, David Sirota, Greg Keeler, Richard Wheeler, and many others.

Mary-Kim Arnold will become to the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities on September 16. Learn more about Mary-Kim on RICH's website.

Robert Straughter has joined the NEH Office of Grant Management, working with veteran Lori Schroeder to learn everything there is to know about the state humanities councils prior to Lori's retirement next January. Robert is no new-comer to NEH, having served in the Administrative Services Office for 16 years. He has a degree in public administration.

Federal/State Partnership on the road

Kathleen Mitchell will help carry out the site visit to the Wyoming Humanities Council, August 4-5. The site visit will be in Jackson Hole.

Check out the site visit schedules through 2011 on Federal/State Partnership's website.

New on the Federal/State Partnership website

The founding dates of the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils are now on the new Federal/State Partnership website: www.neh.gov/partnership. The logon for the website is fedstate and the password is partnership. The website is filled with a lot of useful information from nonprofit resources to council activities to details about general operating support grants.